| OCR Text |
Show 1873.] GENERA AND SPECIES OF ARANEIDEA. 121 diameter or rather more, and they are rather in advance of the straight line formed by the fore lateral eyes : behind the fore centrals, and forming with them a quadrangular figure whose hinder side is considerably longer than its fore side, are the two eyes which form the second row ; these are exceedingly minute and very difficult to see even with a lens ; and behind them are the two eyes forming the third line ; these are rather nearer together than the fore laterals and considerably less in size than those, but a good deal larger than the rest; the length of the line which they form is more than double of that formed by each lateral pair ; the two eyes of the second row are about equally distant from those of the first and third, and each of them forms the apex of an isosceles triangle with the base formed by the two lateral eyes nearest to them. The legs are moderately long but rather slender ; those of the first and second pairs are much longer than those of the third and fourth, the second being rather the longest, and the third rather the shortest. Their colour is pale yellow, the femora of the first two pairs being tinged with orange-brown, and having a broad longitudinal deep-reddish- brown stripe throughout their length both before and behind. They are furnished with hairs and longish slender spines; and each tarsus terminates with two claws. The falces are short, strong, vertical, and subconical in form, and rather darker in colour than the cephalothorax. The palpi are short, slender, and similar to the legs in colour. The maxillee and labium do not differ in form from those of this genus in general; and their colour, with that of the sternum, is dark yellowish brown. The abdomen is of a short oval form, very convex above, and rather broader behind than before, where it projects forwards just enough to fit on to and cover the hind slope of the cephalothorax. It is sparingly clothed with hairs ,- and its colour is palish yellow, marked on the upperside with four large black patches, which leave the yellow ground-colour in the form of a cross ; the sides are also each marked with a strong black patch, each patch meeting the other across the underside of the abdomen a little way from the spinners ; the black patches on the upperside vary in extent, in some examples being almost wholly confluent. The adult male is rather less in size than the female ; but the first and second pairs of legs are longer, and the femora are suffused with dark reddish yellow-brown, the tibiae also being bright red-brown. The palpi are short, not strong, but of a dark reddish-brown colour, except the cubital joint, which is yellow; the radial joint is of the same length and strength as the cubital, being broadest in front, and having a not very large bluntish pointed apophysis from its extremity on the underside ; the digital joint is oval, pointed at its extremity, not very large, but exceeding in length that of the radial and cubital together. The palpal organs are neither prominent nor complex, apparently consisting of a flattish round corneous lobe, with a pointed black spine issuing from near their inner extremity. The abdomen of the male has the upperside covered with a stoutish coriaceous shining shield clothed with a few small bristles, the sides and hinder |
